St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-30
A DIsHwAsHER's FORTUNE.
A Partisan Who Became a Mill
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A DISHWASHER'S FORTUNE.
A Partisan Who Became a Mill
ionaire by Lending Money to
Gamblers.
London World.
Thanks to this prestige of Paris, very
small Partisan events claim far larger
share of public, and even of European,
attention than they deserve. One of
the secrets of the chroniquer is
to philosophize profoundly over in
significant incidents. For Incl
dent, Chares Leroux, croupier of
the Cercle de la Presse, has gone out of
his mind, and the prince of Partisan
chroniquers, Albert Wolff, devotes two
and half columns of sympathetic
prose in the Figaro to the memory of
TINS worthy. parsonage. Charles began
life as dishwasher in restaurant; he
gradually rose to be waiter, then
maitre d'hotel in club, in which posi-
who repaid him with hand
some. pourboire; finally he bought
founders shares in the Cercle
de la Presse, and established himself
tnere as crOupier-preteur. and became
famous in the Bohemian world of gam
blers who Oscilate between the Carcle
de Il EScrime and half dozen other So
called clubs. Charles was the type of
the croupier end of the nineteenth CEN
Jury, and very different person from
the oid-fashloned croupiers of the
frenchs and German watering places of
FORMER Times, who were content
to earn 5000 or 5000 francs a year,
and married the daughter of the
local grocer or the chemist. Charles
IlVed III an elegant villa on the Rue de
la Falsanderte, where he was the neigh
Dor OF M. de Freycinet; Charles had
gallery OF modern pictures, rich in works
OF MelsSonier, DjaZ, Rousseau, Troyon.
and other masters a la mode: Charles
extended his protection to one of the
most celebrated beauties of the Partisan
stage, whose regard he shared with
royal prince; Charles was an habitue
OF hrst nights at the theater,
he owned race horses. made a book
on the Derby and the Grand Prix.
owned provincial casino, and was a
sleeping partner in all kinds of gam
ping enterprises. How did Charles OBJ
TAIN the millions necessary to such an
existence? In the first place he was
shareholder in the Cercle de la Presse.
ana IN the second place he was cashier
and preteur until that latter industry
was abolished by order of
the police. As preteur he
would stand near the baccarat-
table, pencil in hand and his pockets
full OF JetonS, which he distributed, as
neeu required among the playerS-10
louis 10 TINS one, 25 louis to another,
l,oO0 10 anOther-and as fortune favored
TINS one or that one the ietons were paid
back with pourboire of 10 or % louis:
and SO, in the high days of Paris gamb-
ling, before the Krach and the Union
Generate, Charles, latter his nights work.
would leave the club at daylight with a
gain of 1000, 5000 and even 10000
francs, Thanks to the confiture. as the
club slang terms it, the fortune of
charles Leroux grew with marvellous
rapldlty;. and like all caissiers in clubs
such as the Cercle de la Presse. he kept
lot OF hangers-on, the scum of the
who played for him at the bac,
carat table and exercised all the
functions of the parasite who
lives luxuriously on the vices of others.
dlnes at the Cafe Anglais, drives in the
Bols de Boulogne and contributes to the
S0-caIled elegant movement. of Paris.
Charles LerOuX was not the only
Partisan croupier who has made an i'm
menSe fortune. During the ten years
which preceded the Krach there were in
the clubs of Paris at lerst
twenty croupiers and maitres d'hotel
who lived at the rate of 100000 francs
year, and more than 800 Bohemians,
who absorbed each 10000 francs year,
gained by some means or another
around the baccarat-tabIe. Two mill
IONS ON the one hand, 100000 on the
other, plus about 100000 squandered
| by the regular gamblers themselves
and thus we arrive at total of 10000
700 year absorbed by the vice of gamb-
ling, OF In ten years sum of 100. 600. 900
OF francs scattered to the winds. Hence.
the economists say that gambling i'm ali
Its forms is one of the great agents in
the distribution of fortune. and that
were 1T not for play, Europe i'm the
course OF a century would be deyoured
| by a formidable financial feudalism more
| terrible than the landed feudalism of the
past.
Since the Krach, gambling in Paris
has not flourished, and big banks at
baccarat are few and far between.
| Charles LerOux, however, continued
his industry of money-lending until
two months ago. when the police sup-
pressed that industry in all the Paris
clubs. Shortly after this Charles began
to show signs of madness of the species
known as joue DIES grandeurs. The
millionaire dishwaSher deyoured by
pride and social ambition, in spite of his
millions, could not shake off the past
and become Monsieur Leroux.o He
| remained ''Charles, - a man without edu-
| cation and of limited intelligence. a
king of Bohemians but too weak to wear
| his crown.